Libya sentences medics to death

TRIPOLI – A Libyan court has sentenced five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor to death for knowingly infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV.

The medics have been in detention since 1999, during which time 52 of the 426 infected children have died of AIDS. The nurses and doctor were sentenced to death in 2004, but the Supreme Court quashed the ruling after protests over the fairness of the trial.The defendants say they are being made scapegoats for unhygienic hospitals.Defence lawyers said the medics would appeal against the new verdict, expected to be the final appeal allowed under Libyan law.The defence team told the court that the HIV virus was present in the hospital, in the town of Benghazi, before the nurses began working there in 1998.Western nations had backed the medics’ case, calling for their release.Bulgarian officials quickly condemned the verdicts.Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin described the ruling as “deeply disappointing”.And EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini expressed his shock at the verdict and called for the decision to be reviewed, the AFP news agency reported.Parents of the infected children said they were happy with the verdicts.Some cried out in court as the verdicts were delivered, while others were gathered outside carrying banners.”Justice has been done.We are happy,” said Subhy Abdullah, whose seven-year-old daughter died of AIDS.”They should be executed quickly,” he told the Reuters news agency.The medics protested their innocence throughout the case, retracting confessions that they said were obtained under torture.Medical experts including the French co-discoverer of the HIV virus had testified on behalf of the medics.And a study of some of the patients’ blood, published in the scientific journal Nature, backed the theory that poor hygiene was the cause of the outbreak.But the Nature study was published too late to be considered in the trial.Judge Mahmoud Haouissa announced the verdict in a court in the Libyan capital, Tripoli.Libya has asked for £6.7m compensation to be paid to each of the families of victims, suggesting the medics’ death sentences could be commuted in return.But Bulgaria has rejected the proposal, saying any payment would be seen as an admission of guilt.BBCThe nurses and doctor were sentenced to death in 2004, but the Supreme Court quashed the ruling after protests over the fairness of the trial.The defendants say they are being made scapegoats for unhygienic hospitals.Defence lawyers said the medics would appeal against the new verdict, expected to be the final appeal allowed under Libyan law.The defence team told the court that the HIV virus was present in the hospital, in the town of Benghazi, before the nurses began working there in 1998.Western nations had backed the medics’ case, calling for their release.Bulgarian officials quickly condemned the verdicts.Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin described the ruling as “deeply disappointing”.And EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini expressed his shock at the verdict and called for the decision to be reviewed, the AFP news agency reported.Parents of the infected children said they were happy with the verdicts.Some cried out in court as the verdicts were delivered, while others were gathered outside carrying banners.”Justice has been done.We are happy,” said Subhy Abdullah, whose seven-year-old daughter died of AIDS.”They should be executed quickly,” he told the Reuters news agency.The medics protested their innocence throughout the case, retracting confessions that they said were obtained under torture.Medical experts including the French co-discoverer of the HIV virus had testified on behalf of the medics.And a study of some of the patients’ blood, published in the scientific journal Nature, backed the theory that poor hygiene was the cause of the outbreak.But the Nature study was published too late to be considered in the trial.Judge Mahmoud Haouissa announced the verdict in a court in the Libyan capital, Tripoli.Libya has asked for £6.7m compensation to be paid to each of the families of victims, suggesting the medics’ death sentences could be commuted in return.But Bulgaria has rejected the proposal, saying any payment would be seen as an admission of guilt.BBC